Wednesday, January 21, 2004

Most of the time, writers for Metaphilm approach films to see what they
mean or what they have to say—consciously or subconsciously, seriously
or humorously. We typically avoid the subjective question of whether
the film under discussion is any good. Here, one film professor offers
his introductory guidelines for ways you can evaluate the films you watch.
Think of it as a meta-level approach to film-watching, or perhaps a way
to go meta with movie critics.

Other Recent Long Stuff

Books to Phlog

Understanding Jacques Ellul, by Greenman, Schuchardt, and Toly, will be of special interest to Metaphilm readers as Jacques Ellul understood cinema as one of the chief tools of propaganda used by the state to distract the masses from that which matters.

Wednesday, January 28, 2004

Metropolitan and Mansfield Park

Must be one of them “meme” things. Two articles in one season comparing Jane Austen to director Whit Stillman. First is a focal piece on Stillman in City Journal: “In fact, the spirit of Jane Austen, Audrey’s favorite novelist, animates Metropolitan. Austen understands profoundly that manners are a kind of morals. She extols conventions that make civilized society possible. Stillman adopts not just her estimation of society but also her novelistic conventions, even down to the plot device of handwritten letters. His characters speak with a wit and articulateness that echo Austen’s seamless irony” (Julia Magnet, “A Great Conservative Filmmaker,” City Journal, Winter 2004). Then comes a great piece on the seriously misunderstood Mansfield Park: “In Whit Stillman’s intriguingly Austenesque film, Metropolitan, Tom Townsend . . . is astonished when Audrey Rouget . . . reveals that she enjoys Mansfield Park. Everyone knows, Tom says, that Mansfield Park is the worst novel Jane Austen wrote, and nobody likes the book’s heroine, Fanny Price. Audrey, the moral center of the film and very much a Fanny Price character herself, protests simply, ‘I like Fanny Price.’” (Peter J. Leithart, “Jane Austen, Public Theologian,” First Things, January 2004). That probably explains why there’s a mixed reaction to Stillman. Too countercultural.

Did Big Fish Kill Spalding Gray?

Spalding Gray has gone missing, and according to this story, the last film he saw was Big Fish, which his wife speculates “gave him permission” to do that which he’d been contemplating and attempting for many months prior.

Monday, January 26, 2004

Loving the Hulk

I just ran across an interview with the late novelist Walker Percy (author of The Moviegoer) where he affirms that his favorite television program was The Incredible Hulk: “It united two great literary traditions: rotation (hitting the road, dropping out, adventures) and the good monster (Beauty’s beast), who is also Lancelot.” (Doubletake Magazine)